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DUBAI — Canadian author Margaret Atwood has pulled out of an international Dubai literary festival after organizers banned a forthcoming novel by a British author because it contains references to homosexuality.
In a letter addressed to the festival's director, Atwood said she could not attend Dubai's inaugural International Festival of Literature next week because of the "regrettable turn of events surrounding" the book "The Gulf Between Us."
Atwood was referring a novel by British author Geraldine Bedell who said the festival banned it because of references to homosexuality. The book, set in the Persian Gulf, is scheduled to be published in April.
"I was greatly looking forward to the Festival, and to the chance to meet readers there; but, as an International Vice President of PEN — an organization concerned with the censorship of writers — I cannot be part of the Festival this year," Atwood said in the letter, posted on her Web site.
Festival director Isobel Abulhoul described Atwood's decision not to attend the Feb. 26 to March 1 festival as "regrettable."
The festival has not given a specific reason for why it banned Bedell's forthcoming book. But Abulhoul said decisions can be driven in many cases by "simple attendance imperatives."
"I would hope that anyone informed and interested in the differing cultures around the world would both understand and respect the path we tread in setting up the first festival of this nature in the Middle East," she said in a letter posted on the festival's Web site late Wednesday.
Dubai has struggled over the past year to merge its glitzy international appeal with its conservative Muslim values. The UAE has also come under intense pressure this week after it barred an Israeli women's tennis player from a lucrative Dubai tournament. On Thursday, it announced that an Israeli men's doubles player would be allowed entry into the country to play in next week's men's tournament.
Other well-known authors such as Frank McCourt, Louis de Bernieres and Jung Chang are also scheduled to attend the Dubai festival.
On Monday, Bedell, a journalist for the British Observer newspaper and the author of several novels, said the organizers had first discussed launching her book at the festival because of its Gulf setting. But later, Abulhoul wrote to Penguin, saying Dubai didn't want the "festival remembered for the launch of a controversial book," Bedell said.
According to Bedell, who lived in Bahrain for five years in the 1980s, the book was not acceptable because one characters, Sheikh Rashid, is assumed to be gay. Homosexuality is illegal in the United Arab Emirates.
The author also said festival organizers complained that "it talks about Islam and queries what is said."
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